Toxins in the rivers and toxins in the body politic – the battle over Line 9 in Canada
Nov 6, 2013
Mika Minio-Paluello, Anna Galkina and James Marriott travelled in North America as part of a tour over September and October to promote The Oil Road – Journeys from the Caspian to the City of London. The fourth of a series of blogs on the journey comes from James Marriott in Ontario. York University, Toronto, Ontario...
The showcase that “Emboldens” and shakes the “Energetic Apathy”
Nov 4, 2013
Since I joined Platform in July, I have seen the high-spirited Farzana passionately preparing for the “Shake! – Young Voices in Arts, Media, Race & Power course”, organising its different activities and coordinating with other facilitators (Ed, Zena and Sai) in order to make it even better than the previous sessions. The third course was...
Divestment and ending arts sponsorship – both tools of oil company stigmatization
Nov 1, 2013
Divestment is very much the climate campaign buzzword at the moment. Tonight in London there’s the culmination of the Fossil Free Europe tour with divestment doyen Bill McKibben hoping to emulate the success of the States-side campaign over here, while last week we co-published with People & Planet and 350.org the report Knowledge and Power...
The Oil Road in Washington – Constructing Caspian Pipelines on Capitol Hill
Oct 30, 2013
Mika Minio-Paluello, Anna Galkina and James Marriott travelled in North America as part of a tour over September and October to promote The Oil Road – Journeys from the Caspian to the City of London. The fifth of a series of blogs on the journey is adapted from a talk that James Marriott gave at...
Fraud, Freedom and Fossil Fuels: Azerbaijan’s Elections
Oct 29, 2013
The fittings of Committee Room 6 at the House of Commons – thick carpet, green leather chairs, portrait of 18th century Prime Minister William Pitt and view over the Thames – suggest a solemn and sedate atmosphere. But last Thursday the debate raged furiously, back and forth. Mainly between Murad Gussanly, UK representative of the...
Platform vs the oil and gas lobby in Parliament over fossil fuel subsidies
Oct 24, 2013
Yesterday we were invited by the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) to come in and give evidence as part of their inquiry into the nature of energy subsidies in the UK. We’d already made a written submission, but it was great to go in and put our points across in person. Great, and a little...
Shale Gas Exploitation in Algeria: Interview with an Algerian Journalist and Anti-Fracking Campaigner
Oct 18, 2013
Global Frackdown 2 will be taking place on Saturday 19th October. It is an initiative that is aiming to bring together community actions from all over the world to challenge hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, so we thought it would be good to hear from someone in Algeria about the situation there. Algeria has made some amendments...
Another oil spill reported in Ogoni territory, time to implement the UNEP report?
Oct 14, 2013
By AkpoBari Celestine, Head of Community at Social Action and National Coordinator of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum Almost a month after the Ogoni fishing community of Bodo rejected a 7.5 billion Naira offer for massive spills which Shell accepted liability for, Bunu, another Ogoni farming community in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State was...
A Night at the Museum – the Shell sponsored Fracking Quiz
Oct 14, 2013
Last week I joined Science Unstained for a trip to the Science Museum. Science Unstained worries about the corporate sponsorship of science communication – everything from BAE’s sponsorship of the unfortunately titled Big Bang Fair – an event for young scientists and engineers – to Atos designed degree courses. When they’ve had enough of worrying...
An oil and gas executive we can (sort of) get behind!
Oct 10, 2013
We’ve engaged in a lot of AGM activism over the years, mainly on Shell, BP and RBS, and we’ve been privileged to work alongside many different visitors from impacted communities who’ve come to these AGMs to speak ‘truth to power’. In recent years there’s been some really powerful interventions from people from Gulf Coast Communities devastated...
Richmond, California – winning against big oil
Oct 8, 2013
The most rewarding part of touring our book The Oil Road, for me, has been learning from experiences of people we visit. The book tour becomes part of the Road. Two weeks ago we presented the book in the San Francisco Bay Area, where tankers deliver crude from around the world, including the Ceyhan terminal...
#Oct7Proclaim – Solidarity with Idle No More
Oct 7, 2013
Today is the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the British Royal Proclamation, an historic document that legally mandated Canada to recognise Indigenous land rights. This document was signed by George III and this morning at 8.30am a group of 25 people met at the George III statue on Pall Mall as part of a Global...
